Jerome Wetzel is the Chief Television Critic for Seat42F and a regular contributing reviewer on Blogcritics. He also appears on The Good, The Bad, and the Geeky podcast and Let's Talk TV With Barbara Barnett.

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Friday, May 23, 2014

Glad I'm Not GANG RELATED

FOX is getting into the original summer
series game with the gritty new crime drama GANG RELATED. Sort of a
cross between Southland and Graceland, the show centers on Ryan Lopez
(Ramon Rodriguez, The Wire), a street-wise cop working as part of a new
inter-agency, gang-focused task force. The problem for Ryan is that he
is part of a gang, too, beholden to the man who raised him, and
providing information about the unit’s activities on the sly.

Ryan is torn between two worlds, his old
way of life and his new one. He loves Javier Acosta (Cliff Curtis,
Missing), who is good to Ryan, like a father. But he’s also really
liking being a part of the team led by Sam Chapel (Terry O’Quinn, Lost).
The double dealing is taking its toll on Ryan, who seems like a good
guy at heart, and who definitely doesn’t want to end up in jail. Which
will he choose?

It would be one thing if GANG RELATED
presented two completely different worlds, a good one and a bad one.
Clearly, the law enforcement agency is noble, trying to clean up the
streets. However, Sam is getting frustrated with their lack of progress,
and starts to turn to methods not everyone will approve of. On the
other hand, Javier, spurred on by his son, Daniel (Jay Hernandez,
Nashville), a banker, is trying to take the organization onto the
straight and narrow. So neither side operates as black or white.

One would assume that the blurred lines
mean GANG RELATED is a deep show, not separating the characters into
good and evil, presenting layers to all involved. In a way, that’s true.
Ryan, Sam, and Javier are interesting people, shaped by circumstance,
and vulnerable to shifting winds, should the status quo be upset. There
is much that can be explored with this trio, all excellent performers,
that will make GANG RELATED interesting.

On the other hand, it’s also stocked
with tired stereotypes. Javier’s other son, Carlos (Reynaldo Gallegos,
Sons of Anarchy), is an unapologetic son of a bitch. It’s easy to see
that he will not get along well once Javier goes legit, and he needs to
be removed from the equation if the family has a chance. Javier can’t
cut off his own son, though, so we’re stuck with this unwinnable
scenario that feels forced. How did Carlos become so bad while still
being tied to this family that is not the same way?

Just as bad is Sam’s estranged daughter,
Jessica (Shantel VanSanten, One Tree Hill), who works for the D.A. and
is often at odds with her dad. We understand why she might be, given the
side of Sam revealed in GANG RELATED’s pilot, but their father-daughter
relationship is not exactly new ground, and is set up solely to provide
drama, coming across as unnatural, especially because of her job.

The
premise itself has been done before, including quite recently. Because
Mob Doctor, starring Jordana Spiro, was yanked off the air quickly, not
many viewers may remember it. But apart from being a medical drama
instead of a cop show, the two share a lot of the same DNA. GANG RELATED
does not distinguish itself enough from this, and others in the crime
genre.

Why is GANG RELATED full of police?
Aren’t there enough shows like this on the air? Why not take a different
tact, keeping the gang-going-straight story, and even including a cop
or two on their tails, but giving prime focus to, say, Daniel, who has a
job not seen on three dozen shows already airing? It’s this lack of
originality that hurts the series in my eyes, as entertaining and
compelling as its leads may be.